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Back Then - Jack Ruby convicted of Oswald's murder

Published: Wednesday, April 9, 2014 at 1:38 p.m.

Last Modified: Wednesday, April 9, 2014 at 1:38 p.m.

100 years ago

March 25, 1914: You've likely heard of the Carolina Beach boardwalk. How about the Wrightsville Beach boardwalk? "The town of Wrightsville Beach now has a force of men engaged in laying a new boardwalk from Station 5 south to Lumina. When completed there will be a fine new boardwalk all the way from the Oceanic Hotel to Lumina.

50 years ago

March 15, 1964: Well, that didn't take long. Less than five months after he shot and killed JFK's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, on national television, Jack Ruby was convicted of murder with malice in a Dallas court and sentenced to die in the electric chair.

(Ruby's lawyers appealed, arguing that he could not have received a fair trial in Dallas. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled on Oct. 5, 1966, that the refusal for change of venue was incorrect, overturned his conviction and death sentence, and ordered that he be retried outside Dallas. Before he could be retried, Ruby was admitted to Parkland Hospital – the same hospital where Kennedy and Oswald had died – suffering from pneumonia. He had cancer in his liver, lungs and brain, and died at Parkland on Jan. 3, 1967, at age 55.)

March 23, 1964: Alderman Elementary School recently marked its 50th anniversary. The Star reported 50 years ago: Located amid young pine trees in a rapidly growing residential area called Lincoln Forest, the new elementary school now bears the name Edwin A. Alderman School. During his lifetime, Alderman was a teacher and superintendent of Goldsboro schools; professor of history at N.C. State; professor of education at UNC Chapel Hill and became the sixth president of UNC in 1896. He later served as president of Tulane University and was the first president of the University of Virginia.

Postscript

I have heard from both the 1964 New Hanover High School Morehead Scholars I mentioned a few weeks back.

Kent Hedman writes from Cleveland where he is an attorney: "My sister, Jane Metts Rippy, shared your '50 Years Ago' column with me. What a nice reminder of a very exciting March day in 1964. ... But to paraphrase the poet, 'Oh to be in Wilmington, now that spring is there'; we had 4 inches of snow here on the lake on Saturday! However, our NHHS Class is having its 50th NHHS reunion in October so will definitely be down then. October is really my favorite month at the beach, especially with its 'R' for oysters."

Robert Coleman III writes from Winston-Salem: "I retired in 2009 after forty years of working to educate children. I served in Wilson, Wilmington and Winston-Salem in both public and private schools. I sidled to administration and sought to improve school programs for children. I specialized in the financial aspects to provide for the continuation of schools through proper budgeting plus funding of construction through tax-exempt bonds as well as growing of endowments." Coleman, who served as headmaster at Cape Fear Academy, noted there were several other Morehead Scholars at New Hanover not too long before he was a student there and close afterward: R.V. Fulk, Don Lewis, Kent Hedman, John Scott and Bill Rowe, among them.

A correction: Thanks to reader Jeff Hindle for pointing out that although South Carolina left the ACC in 1971, the Gamecocks did not join the SEC until 1991.

<p>100 years ago</p><p>March 25, 1914: You've likely heard of the Carolina Beach boardwalk. How about the Wrightsville Beach boardwalk? "The town of Wrightsville Beach now has a force of men engaged in laying a new boardwalk from Station 5 south to Lumina. When completed there will be a fine new boardwalk all the way from the Oceanic Hotel to Lumina.</p><p>50 years ago </p><p>March 15, 1964: Well, that didn't take long. Less than five months after he shot and killed JFK's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, on national television, Jack Ruby was convicted of murder with malice in a Dallas court and sentenced to die in the electric chair.</p><p>(Ruby's lawyers appealed, arguing that he could not have received a fair trial in Dallas. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled on Oct. 5, 1966, that the refusal for change of venue was incorrect, overturned his conviction and death sentence, and ordered that he be retried outside Dallas. Before he could be retried, Ruby was admitted to Parkland Hospital – the same hospital where Kennedy and Oswald had died – suffering from pneumonia. He had cancer in his liver, lungs and brain, and died at Parkland on Jan. 3, 1967, at age 55.)</p><p>March 23, 1964: Alderman Elementary School recently marked its 50th anniversary. The Star reported 50 years ago: Located amid young pine trees in a rapidly growing residential area called Lincoln Forest, the new elementary school now bears the name Edwin A. Alderman School. During his lifetime, Alderman was a teacher and superintendent of Goldsboro schools; professor of history at N.C. State; professor of education at UNC Chapel Hill and became the sixth president of UNC in 1896. He later served as president of Tulane University and was the first president of the University of Virginia. </p><p>Postscript</p><p>I have heard from both the 1964 New Hanover High School Morehead Scholars I mentioned a few weeks back.</p><p>Kent Hedman writes from Cleveland where he is an attorney: "My sister, Jane Metts Rippy, shared your '50 Years Ago' column with me. What a nice reminder of a very exciting March day in 1964. ... But to paraphrase the poet, 'Oh to be in Wilmington, now that spring is there'; we had 4 inches of snow here on the lake on Saturday! However, our NHHS Class is having its 50th NHHS reunion in October so will definitely be down then. October is really my favorite month at the beach, especially with its 'R' for oysters."</p><p>Robert Coleman III writes from Winston-Salem: "I retired in 2009 after forty years of working to educate children. I served in Wilson, Wilmington and Winston-Salem in both public and private schools. I sidled to administration and sought to improve school programs for children. I specialized in the financial aspects to provide for the continuation of schools through proper budgeting plus funding of construction through tax-exempt bonds as well as growing of endowments." Coleman, who served as headmaster at Cape Fear Academy, noted there were several other Morehead Scholars at New Hanover not too long before he was a student there and close afterward: R.V. Fulk, Don Lewis, Kent Hedman, John Scott and Bill Rowe, among them.</p><p>A correction: Thanks to reader Jeff Hindle for pointing out that although South Carolina left the ACC in 1971, the Gamecocks did not join the SEC until 1991.</p>